“I emailed you some properties I think would work for our hot shot visitor. Can you go through them and make sure I have included everything we need. If it all looks good please email it to his assistant so he can decide which ones he wants to see before he arrives.”
“Sure, leave it with me.”
My morning is busy and spent working through and reviewing all the properties and paperwork that will be required. When I’m satisfied with it all I ask John if he has a contact or email for this guy’s assistant.
“I’ll forward to you the email I was sent by them, just reply to that email address.”
A moment later I hear my computer ping and open up the email.
When I see who it’s actually from I feel the blood drain from my face. Please God no, it’s not possible, anyone but him. This has to be a cruel joke, right? There on the bottom of the email it clearly says:
Michelle Peters, Personal Assistant to Nicholas Moore, CEO of Moore & Morgan Design Limited.
No way in hell am I helping him.
I want to avoid seeing him but how do I get out of this without making John ask a million questions.
Does Nick know I work here? Is that why he chose us?
Fuck!
Chapter 2
Nicholas
I’m fucking nervous and I don’t do nervous.
I’m going to see Alannah again today after all these years.
For the longest time I hated her and cursed the day I ever met her.
She lied to my face, or so I thought, about not being with anybody else but the proof was in the baby she was carrying. How could she do that, wasn’t I enough for her?
I loved her and would have given her the whole world if she asked for it.
I refused to even think about her after I kicked her out but she still showed up in my dreams.
I didn’t want to hear her damn name mentioned.
I didn’t hang around after she left but went to London to get started on setting up Moore & Morgan over there sooner than planned. Instead of three months I ended up staying for a year. I immersed myself in my work. I lived and breathed it, only flying back to Australia when absolutely necessary. Not that it helped me forget my heartache. Everywhere I looked I was reminded of Alannah and her love of design and history.
There was one occasion when I was back home for an important conference, I was sitting behind my desk when Alannah’s father, Dennis Stewart barged into my office unannounced. Security could do nothing to stop him, not that they tried very hard if I’m honest. I assume he had been waiting for me to show up there for weeks.
I stand up and walk around my desk. This is going to be ugly judging by the look in his eyes.
I don’t have a chance to say or do anything before I’m knocked down on to the carpeted floor from the punch he landed on my jaw.
“I knew my Anna was never good enough for you, but you had us all fooled that you loved her. If I ever see you again or you try to go near her they will never find the body.” He spits out at me through clenched teeth. “They’re both better off without you.”
He left straight after, leaving me with a bloody lip.
At the time I thought she was still lying to everyone about the kid being mine. How wrong I was but maybe Dennis was right and they are better off without me.
I haven’t even tried to have a relationship with anyone else. I had a few one night stands with faceless women. Shit, there were times when I had trouble getting hard. My cock knew it was wrong. It wasn’t Alannah, but that ship had sailed and wasn’t coming back.
I shut myself off from everybody and lived like a fucking robot. Going from work to home and back again with an occasional fuck thrown in. I wasn’t going to trust or let anyone else in again.
I pulled away from my family. Every time I saw them all they asked about was Alannah and the reason she left so unexpectedly and wanting an explanation as to why the weeding was called off. I didn’t want to talk about it. Didn’t want to admit I had been played for an idiot. Let them speculate, it’s not like it was really any of their business anyway.
The truth is I’m surprised I haven’t heard from her. I was anticipating getting a request for a DNA test and child support but nothing ever came. The kid probably looked nothing like me to try pass it off as mine.
Then two years ago everything changed and I was made to be the biggest fool in the universe.
I was changing and updating my health insurance and needed to have a physical exam for it. The doctor drew blood and put me through a shitload of tests which I was fine with until he asked for a sperm sample.
“What the hell do you need that for?”
“It says in your file that you had a vasectomy over ten years ago. I would like to ensure that it’s still effective. There have been instances and cases where following a ten year period the results of the surgery have lessened.” The doctor explains to me.
I just stare at him dumfounded.
He’s joking right? It’s meant to be permanent.
Needless to say the results came back showing that yes, in my case the effects had reversed themselves. I was fucking pissed, why had no one told me this was a possibility before, or maybe the doctor at the time did and I was just too young and naive to pay much attention to him. Then it hit me like a tonne of bricks. What the fuck did I do to Alannah?
I went home and cried that day. I haven’t cried since I was ten years old.
The only positive thing I could think of was that I was thankful I used condoms to prevent STD’s with all of my one nighters. God knows who they had all been with, so there was no chance of me knocking anyone else up.
I was so sure she was lying to me. That there was no way in hell it was mine. I’ll never forget the look in her eyes when the elevator doors closed that day.
She was broken. I broke her.
It’s taken me this long to work up the courage to face her. I don’t expect a warm welcome. I don’t know what to expect really but I have to do this. I need to make it right. I’m not proud of my actions and need to make it up to her. She deserved better than that.
I didn’t know where she was because I refused to allow myself to look for her. I asked one of my IT guys to trace and run a background check on her. He found her in Perth. All the way on the opposite side of the country, working in a real estate office and living on her own with our daughter. I have a daughter. It makes sense that she moved there, her mother lives there after all. I’m thankful she had her mother’s support at least. She should have had mine.
I’m positive a lot of people are going to want to hang me up by the balls and I’ll let them. How the fuck do I tell my parents they have a granddaughter that they’ve known nothing about for so long. My mother will disown me. She loved Alannah. My sister can’t stand to be in the same room as me, and Flynn, my best friend since I was thirteen has pretty much abandoned me, after I continually pushed him away, causing my parents to always wonder what’s going on with me.
I came up with the brilliant idea to use the agency she works for to show me some properties in the hopes of getting close to her. I wasn’t really looking to buy anything at the moment but having vacant land always comes in handy for future building projects.
So here I am, sitting in the back of a hired car, dressed in my best navy suit, trying to work up the courage to get out and walk into that office. Wade, my driver, assistant, sometime body guard and the closest thing I have to a friend in my life, stands just outside my door patiently waiting until I make a move. Let’s get it over with.